No.10 calls for BBC to take ‘swift action’ after Gaza documentary rebuke
PM's spoksperson says errors must never be repeated
Downing Street has called for the BBC to take “swift action” after a review found that a Gaza documentary narrated by the son of a Hamas official breached one of the corporation’s editorial guidelines on accuracy.
“The BBC must ensure that such errors are never repeated and the public rightly expect the highest standards from the BBC and the corporation must learn and take swift action from the report’s findings,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Monday.
A senior BBC News executive admitted that the corporation “failed” to ask the right questions regarding the documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone.
This comes after a report looking into the documentary, which was removed from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged that the child narrator was the son of a Hamas official, found that it breached BBC editorial guidelines on accuracy.
Speaking on BBC’s World At One, Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News said: “Our current affairs teams, day in, day out, week in, week out, are creating and pushing out incredibly controversial, difficult, complex documentaries. We have really good, best in class systems in place, but in this we failed, and we must put in place new processes which will enable us to continue with our courageous journalism with confidence.”
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she is “pleased” that the BBC has acknowledged “catastrophic” failures.
She said: “It’s not for the Government to say who should and shouldn’t work at the BBC.
“My job is to make sure that we uphold the highest standards and that the public and Parliament can have confidence in the BBC.”
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